Breaking the Visa Backlog 109
bart_scriv writes "As anyone who has dealt with H1-B visas can attest, the process can be a nightmare of long lines, waits and inexplicable delays. In this interview, the State Department's Tony Edson discusses what's being done to speed up and expedite the process, ranging from procedural changes to the use of new technology."
Re:Here comes the chorus (Score:1)
Re:Here comes the chorus (Score:3, Insightful)
When you are starting a company, or a development team, and you have a choice of places to do it, you do it where developers are (a) cheap, (b) convenient to access and (c) plentiful. Generally speaking, if you are a US company, you can have two out of three. You can go domestic and get b & c, or you can offshore for a & c.
So, a program that moves talent from offshoring centers to the US increases the probabil
Re:Here comes the chorus (Score:2)
The problem with that is if foreign cultures were actually capable of producing people who could innovate, they wouldn't need to send people here to make money. So therefore your theory breaks down because there *are* no "best and brightest" to come here- they're all mired down by inefficient and technologically backward cultures that produce crap.
Re:Here comes the chorus (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, and the Japanese don't know how to manufacture anything that isn't junk, as we all knew back in the 1960s. OK, maybe they could make decent, cheap pocket transistor radio, but not big things like cars.
they wouldn't need to send people here to make money.
This is completely wrong. They send people here to make money because we live in a place where labor is dear and they live in a place where labo
Re:Here comes the chorus (Score:1, Redundant)
They still can't- which is why my Izuzu pickup died after less than 8 years, where my 7 year old Ford Escort still gets 50 MPG.
This is completely wrong. They send people here to make money because we live in a place where labor is dear and they live in a place where labor is cheap. The problem is tha
Re:Here comes the chorus (Score:1)
In other words- makeing the process more efficient is a positive no matter which side of the "guest worker" debate you are on- it's good news both for anti-indentured-servant activists AND cheap-labor free traitors.
It's supposed to be complicated (Score:1, Insightful)
You know what's faster? Hiring an American.
Give me a call.
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Corporate America (aka "Republicans" as you used it) doesn't want 100% employment. 100% employment means that, rather than the plebes fighting one another over who will accept the lowest pay for a given demeaning job, the employers actually need to make honest, fair offers to get good employees, then treat them like humans to keep them.
That describes the Republican nightmare,
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:3, Insightful)
Less than 100% employment doesn't mean that companies don't have to make honest, fair offers to get good employees. Damned close to 100% of good employees are either already employed, or will be unemployed for only a very short period of time.
100% employmen
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
If that was true, stockholder profit would be 0. All the money would be going to retaining the good employees.
100% employment, however, means no incentive to better yourself as a worker. That leads to low domestic innovation, low productivity, low job satisfaction
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:5, Interesting)
We've been handing them out for decades, yet we seem to have near record low unemployment... Yet countries like France, which have very protectionist policies, seem to have a serious problem getting their young people into the workforce. Something seems seriously wrong with your theory.
If we don't let US companies hire foreign workers in the US, the companies will move to a country where they can hire those workers. Here's a pop quiz: Which company is likely to hire more US citizens, a company with offices in the US with a mixture of US and non-US employees, or a company with offices overseas?
I suggest you weigh your ideas against some real life data and reconsider your position.
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:1, Flamebait)
Only if you fail to include in the workforce all the people the BLS puts on "disability" to lower the unemployment numbers artificially.
Yet countries like France, which have very protectionist policies, seem to have a serious problem getting their young people into the workforce.
Actually, they don't have very good protectionist policies- they've got a huge influx of Islamic Africans and Arabs who serve the sam
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
What's it like off the deep end? It's not enough to have ideas you think will work. They have to take basic human rights into account too.
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Why? The stock market obviously doesn't think we deserve basic human rights. The Chinese don't take basic human rights into account. Mexicans don't. The Hindus don't. The Moslems don't. Basic human rights are a LUXURY- one that we can't afford in a globalist economy. I may be off the deep end- but I've been pushed there by a bunch of free traitors. I have to com
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Ever hear the saying "Two wrongs don't make a right"?
Basic human rights are a LUXURY- one that we can't afford in a globalist economy.
We can afford them, but we won't be able to for long if we become isolationists... Unless, that is, you'd like to be a farmer. You and everybody else...
We MUST afford them. Otherwise we won't have them for ourselves.
you can't depend on ANYBODY else to do it for you. Tru
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
A loser attitude in the 21st century.
We can afford them, but we won't be able to for long if we become isolationists... Unless, that is, you'd like to be a farmer. You and everybody else...
I grew up farming- I know that we only need 2% of our population to create enough food for everybody if we're not stupid enough to give it away to the third world below cost (which is what we're currently doing- which destroys THEIR farming market, encouraging the
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
There is no reason to have free trade with countries that are not on the same level with us human rights wise. You don't have to be isolationist to have standards.
You're right that we can't l
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Tell it to the money- that is, the WTO. According to them, we have the choice between FREE trade, or NO trade.
You don't have to be isolationist to have standards.
As long as corporations exist, as long as there are artificial people in this world whose *only* moral is profit, then that is truly the choice- no standards or isolationism.
You're right that we can't let corporations have *everyth
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
That's only true if you turn a blind eye to all but the largest and most institutional of publically traded corporations... And even some of those aren't that way. The assumption that corporations are profit driven is fairly accurate, but the assumption that cost cutting increases profits is not. Good, happy employees are essential to most corporations. Good public rapport is
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
I've yet to meet any company of that form. After all, profit is the difference between what you can li
I love the unemployment figures (Score:2)
Re:I love the unemployment figures (Score:2)
All the H1Bs at my company with the same job title as the US workers all make approximately the same amount of money. And yes, I know, because they have to post the salaries as part of the application process. It's a m
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Our terms should be; streamline guest worker program, all illegals leave the country and apply for re-entry, any immigrant currently employed can be fast tracked assuming they pass the requisite background checks. But everyone has to enter legally.
Anyone still here illegally after 1 year is deported and banned, permanently. And any employer that doesn't comply risks severe fines and mandantory
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Actually, I think they WILL take no for an answer if we start exposing some of the sleaze inherent in the H1-B scam.
How many of you have seen ads for "DBA/Programmer/Network engineer" positions p
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
1. Most obvious is the fact that now someone else is doing a job that unemployed Americans are qualified to do, the only reason the company didn't hire the American is because they consider it to be too expensive. That hurts the person who could have had the job, but probably the overall effect on the economy is minimal if the number of H1B visa holders is kept low.
2. However, the more subtle way it hurts the economy is it
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
I would hope the H1-B system is designed to help startups, but we all know it wasn't: Otherwise there wouldn't be loopholes to exploit big enough for the Fortune 500 to drive a cement-mixer through. The reason should be fairly obvious if you've been following politics in the U.S. in the last thirty or so years: Money.
Startups with a dozen employees don't make massive campaign contributions to keep Congress-critters in offic
Re:It's supposed to be complicated (Score:2)
Check-list for job applicants (Score:3, Funny)
No. (Give me a call)
2. When presented with a problem, does the applicant find a general solution, or is he/she looking for a temporary shortcut?
Temporary shortcut. (You know what's faster? Hiring an American)
3. Recommendation for hire?
Not recommended.
Re:Check-list for job applicants (Score:3, Insightful)
1. Does the applicant show initiative, is he/she proactive?
No. (Give me a call)
Actually, GP is showing initiative by suggesting you contact an American worker, rather than an unauthorized immigrant. Seems to me that he's looking for work, and inviting you to call him.
2. When presented with a problem, does the applicant find a
Mod Parent UP (Score:2)
What is an H-1B? (Score:2, Informative)
The H-1B is a nonimmigrant classification used by an alien who will be employed temporarily in a specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability.
http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/h1b.htm#what/ [uscis.gov]
so many ways to rebut/mock this... (Score:3, Informative)
2- what defines 'ability' of a model?
3- what about distinguished merit and NO ability models like XXX (insert your own answer)
etc...
Re:so many ways to rebut/mock this... (Score:2)
Holy shit, they give away H1Bs for porn stars now? I guess it is a special talent.
Re:What is an H-1B? (Score:2)
Rite of Passage (Score:2)
DMV
(or DPS for us Texans)
Until you have stood in line, and felt the mind-numbing soul-sucking near-lethal apathy of waiting to get your driver's license or anything else from those godforsaken offices, or waited to pay local taxes... you cannot truly be prepared for the US.
The visa application process is merely to weed out the weaklings, so that
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What is an H-1B? (Score:2)
If there is any way for them to get permanent residency, then the visa has failed in it's primary purpose as a "non-immigrant" visa. Much as I hate the entire concept of a non-immigrant visa, there most certainly should be a hard line between immigrant and non-immigrant visas; which will
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What is an H-1B? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What is an H-1B? (Score:2)
That was part of the 1999 compromise bill that:
1. Increased the number of H-1b visas to 195,000
2. Required an Labor Condition Application to attest to paying prevailing wages and advertising the job, except for businesses that were not H-1b dependant (defined as more than 33%
I don't mind the wait if it's done right... (Score:2)
The two biggest issues that I have with the whole proce
Re:I don't mind the wait if it's done right... (Score:2)
When you really live in a totalitarian state, you'll know it - you won't be able to make comments like that.
I know I shouldn't be, but I'm still amazed at the hyperbole and hysteria on
Re:I don't mind the wait if it's done right... (Score:2)
I don't know about that- almost every totalitarian state I can think of has at least one person (the dictator) and usually a class of people (the ruling/oppressing party in question) who can make a comment like that with a straight face. In fact, I'd have to say, it would be incredibly hard to have a totalitarian state without a class of people who don't think the state is totalitarian.
Re:I don't mind the wait if it's done right... (Score:2)
Did you try going to a university offering a degree in the program and sponsoring a scholarship for a graduate student to study to gain this knowledge, or did you just give up early?
Re:I don't mind the wait if it's done right... (Score:2, Informative)
My solution to the problem (Score:2, Insightful)
2) Put skilled workers on the fast track for citizenship and skip this H1B visa nonsense. Any country that makes our marginal tax rates look good deserves to lose their best and brightest, and keeping those workers tied to a given employer is just plain wrong.
3) Annex Mexico. Seriously. Allegedly 30% of the Mexican work force is already here and there are an awful lot of American retirees down there. Auction off Pemex and distribute the money to the Mexican s
Re:My solution to the problem (Score:2)
While I don't agree with him completely, a buddy of mine has been doing some writing about this: http://tdaxp.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/03/29/dra wing-north-america.html [blogspirit.com] and http://tdaxp.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/04/11/ann ex-mexico.html [blogspirit.com]
YES! That's more-or-less what I meant, though having 31 states join could pose problems in terms of Senate representation. Thanks for
Re:What H1-B is FOR (Score:2)
In short, this poster is correct -- the original intention of the H1B visa was to import unique talent that could not be found here. I'm going to disagree with sakusha on the scope of that -- s/he seems to think that this was primarily to lure native speakers of other languages here for foreign language instruction, and I don't think the scope was quite that narr
Re:What H1-B is FOR (Score:2)
Re:What H1-B is FOR (Score:2)
The Future of IT Is Clear (Score:2, Insightful)
US contractors are paid by the State Department to streamline the H-1b visa workflow.
Then they go on unemployment until they realize why they can't even get a minimum wage job.
Then they volunteer for The Minuteman Project [minutemanhq.com].
Then Congress passes "immigration reform" to put all illegal aliens on "a path to citizenship".
Then....
Re:The Future of IT Is Clear (Score:1)
Please, don't let Lou Dobbs (et al.) guide your world. He's an idiot. Don't follow suit.
H-1b aren't minimum wage (Score:2)
T
Not THAT Vista (Score:1)
Then I thought, "it's some kind of metaphor?"
Nope, it's actually about vistas. Next time I will RTFS.
Re:Not THAT Vista (Score:2)
Re:Not THAT Vista (Score:1)
Re: Breaking the Visa Backlog (Score:2, Funny)
You know you've been reading Slashdot too long when you assume the title of this article contained a typo for "vista".
Re: Breaking the Visa Backlog (Score:2)
I really thought that for a minute..
CHEERS to you !!
Having been through it (Score:5, Informative)
Take for example this. The US Embassy in London rejected my APPROVED visa application (it was an extension to a visa, and the INS in the United States had approved it, and all the embassy was required to do was to stick a new visa in my passport) because one of the forms was "out of date". So I downloaded the new, up to date form off their website. I couldn't believe it when I looked at it - it was absolutely identical to the old form, except the date at the bottom was different!
On a previous application, they rejected my application because the company I worked for hadn't filled out the form right (according to them; according to our international assignments department, generally they find a formula that works with the forms - and the forms will be processed OK by the Embassy for about 6 months, and then without warning they start rejecting them. Then they have to to-and-fro in a trial and error process until the Embassy begins accepting the forms again. And about 6 months later, the forms start getting rejected again - rinse and repeat). I had to go to London, sit in the Embassy for 4 hours.
The Embassy itself was quite interesting. You sit in this large square room, and at the end are a bunch of bank teller style windows. There is a delicatessen-style number system. You are given a ticket and wait until your number is called. Of course, prior experience with the Embassy means that you know for sure if you miss your number, they will NOT call it out again and you will be sent away - so it's incredibly difficult to do something like read a book to pass the time just in case you miss the number. There are these 'newspapers' they leave too, I think they were called "Going USA". The first half of this paper is devoted to how great the USA is (land of opportunity etc., it seemed mainly to be stories about people who wanted to immigrate to run gas stations), and how awful your home country is by comparison. The second half of this paper is dedicated to telling you how you will never, ever get a visa! So anyway, my number was called. The question?
"How long have you been working for this company"
"3 years so far"
"That's fine" (stamp stamp). "You'll get your passport back in about 3 days"
They could have asked me that over the phone rather than incurring the cost of going all the way to London, waiting 4 hours, and then sending me away.
The Embassy is probably even worse now. I've heard that the ones in India will reject your application unless you turn up in a business suit (but that's just hearsay, I can't substantiate that). They have all sorts of petty bureacratic rules they won't tell you - they just reject applications with nothing except a very vague reason, and you have to keep retrying until you satisfy them (and even then, after a few months, forms that were completely satisfactory are suddenly unsatisfactory with more vague reasons for rejection).
Then there's the obvious bias. An Irish friend of mine actually got naturalized as a US citizen. He's a doctor. There was a family in front of him for one of the interviews done by the INS. They got given a real grilling - not in a private interview room, but in front of everyone in the waiting room. When he got there? "Oh, Doctor Smart, yes this is acceptable" >stampstamp. It seemed like if you were a doctor, you weren't subjected to the INS Dehumanization adn Demoralization Programme.
Re:Having been through it (Score:2)
Fortunately I never had to do consular processing (I got my H1b, and had my green card application underway, before 9/11/01), but I got caught in a nasty backlog for my EAD (Work Authorisation document for folks waiting on a green card application, for those of you who are following along).
What happened is this: EADs are good for 1 year. Up until 2 years ago, you used to apply for a new EAD 6 weeks prior to the old one
Re:How about this? (Score:1)
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
I think there are two reasons why they cant fill those positions:
a) people are used to dot.bomb rates and want too much
b) the people
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
they must pay prevailing wages? where prevailing wages are 44-102k they can pay 4k in costs and 44 in salary.. where the cost of living would require the position to be closer to the 102k scale...
Also consider.. if the h1b visa holder loses his job, he/she goes home.. now.. imagine you are Gary Cole looking to fill some unpaid overtime on the weekend.. who is more likely to turn Lumbergh down? the native or the visa holder? think that can't make up 4k in productivity?
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
In any case, the problem is with supply-and-demand: the availability of the H1-B visa drives the prevailing wage down, or at least keeps it from rising as it would if there were not an alternative source of workers.
As to your (b) point, H1-B visas al
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
$130.00. [uscis.gov] Cheap at twice the price!
We hire H1B engineers because finding an experienced signal integrity engineer who wants to work in flyover country is pretty damn tough - and that's with above-industry salaries.
It's a shame, too, because you guys who won't consider anything more than 200 miles inland are missing out.
IT guys I don't know so much about - all of them (except for the freakin' loud Scottish guy) that I see around my building a
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Have you thought about going to the local state university and funding a scholarship or two to make some homegrown ones? Or didn't it occur to you that businesses that do this get to set the cirriculum and end up with more sales as the lower achieving class members end up working retail (and knowing YOUR product!) or for your co
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Interesting that you should mention that. The engineering program at my local university exists almost entirely because of a huge endowment tha
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Except that in practice, H1B visa workers in the IT industry never get paid what their native-born counterparts get paid. As another poster in this thread pointed out, "prevailing wage" is hard to compute for IT companies where pay scales vary widely... and the standard practice at companies where I've worked is, the man
Re:How about this? (Score:3, Insightful)
In the St Louis area, my company has had problems hiring skilled programmers. Only 1 in 10 resumes come from Americans, and those tend to be quite weak. In one occasion, after looking for 8 months we got a single qualified applicant, who just
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Either you should train that American- OR you should consider perhaps using a tool that has more of a following in the industry. OR, just perhaps, you should consider paying a large enough wage to get an American Swing Expert with 4 years of
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Um, if you paid attention to the section of the grandparent
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
You and I are going to have to agree to disagree. I've seen quite a few sorry cases cross m
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
The biggest cause of stupidity is instructors who fail to realize that there's more than one way to learn. I've run into a few of those myself in my career- and every ti
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Sorry to butt in on your argument, but it's a pretty pointless one. The real issue you two should be arguing isn't one of competency or not, it's one of experience. The original poster whined that there weren't any Swing programmers in his city with 4 years of experience applying to his job. The suggestion was to hire an inexperienced programmer and teach him/her to use Swing. Or to raise the pay to the level necessary to steal a swing programmer
Re:How about this? (Score:1)
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
-b
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
To a large extent they're JUST as corrupt- the only difference is that their highest bidder is The Party instead of a Corporation. There is no difference between encouraging a totalitarian government with promises of economic freedom that are never fullfilled OR a totalitarian corporation with promises of economic freedom that are never fullfilled.
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
To your question, there is a difference: One is Communism, the other Facism.
I have had some economics training. One of my profs used to say that he'd get interviewed on the news and to provide a balanced approach, he'd be on a panel with an absolute wing nut.
I think that in general there are professional economists (typically with the brown cordorroy sports jacket and brown tie) and the "pundits" who dress very well. You might think that that is a shallow comment, but it speaks to the i
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
I didn't catch that, because I'm not. I'm incredibly pissed that the promises of true capitalism (cottage industries, you can do anything you like) and true communism (the state takes care of all of your needs in exchange for a relatively minor portion of your time, and you can still do anything you want) are lies.
To your question, there is a difference: One is Communism, the other Facism
:-) I like you- you're completely correct....mine's based on effect to the average citizen, in
Re:How about this? (Score:1)
The ideal balance is referred to as the Non Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment (NAIRU).
This is essentially the level of unemployment at which the inflation rate holds steady and is a function of many aspects, one of the most important being job security (or insecurity). This is the magic point at which all wage pressures and spending controls balance out to maintain the stability of inflation (which can still be >0 just not changing).
It's one of
Re:How about this? (Score:3, Informative)
Not only did the company have to spend on the order of $4K or so on the process, I was paid the same salary as my colleagues PLUS an international service allowance; I was around 15-
Re:How about this? (Score:2)
You sound like a true rareity to me- one for whom the H-1b visa did as it was advertised it was going to do. I think the keyword is right there- in sufficient time. Just about any business can sponsor a scholoarship for a graduate student to learn just about anything in America- given 4 years and $40,000. Perhaps that's what we need it to take to get an H-1b.